00:00:00.000Sam Cooper is an award-winning Canadian investigative journalist, founder of the Bureau, and the best-selling author of Willful Blindness.
00:00:08.040His reporting focuses on foreign interference, organized crime, illicit finance, and national security,
00:00:14.440exposing how international criminal and state-linked networks operate inside of Canada.
00:00:20.000And that's exactly what we're focused on today.
00:00:22.180sam thanks so much for taking the time to uh chat with me today about this because i think that uh
00:00:32.820as the news has started to report the irgc has a presence in canada that i think might be somewhat
00:00:39.300concerning and so i i ask you kind of out of the gate to paint the picture for us let's start with
00:00:44.580what you think canadians don't know about the irgc and their presence in canada how they're
00:00:50.900infiltrating our country well they're uh they're really the force that that drives uh the iranian
00:00:59.220regime uh drives its repression against its many citizens that don't want to live under sort of a
00:01:05.620brutal cleric clerical regime uh it's not that they're uh extremely religious or islamist in
00:01:14.180themselves. They're just a very hardened military and intelligence oligarchical type elite in Iran
00:01:22.980that is part of the ruling structure. They sort of fuse together high society and business elements
00:01:31.920with military intelligence and terror sponsoring operations. And that's what helps the Iranian
00:01:39.960regime control so many tens of millions that don't want to live the way they're living.
00:01:46.580It's what allows Iran to evade U.S. sanctions and use proxy forces across the Middle East.
00:01:55.880And so when I say proxies, just whether it's the Houthis or Hamas, any number of sort of
00:02:02.140Islamist linked groups around the world, and including set up very strongly, as I've reported
00:02:08.180in canadian cities this is how the iranian guards uh you know they they work together with drug
00:02:15.140traffickers to both move drug money and drugs around the world to help the regime in non-state
00:02:22.420like uh non-legal ways and they work with drug dealers and uh hell's angels you don't have to be
00:02:30.820coming from an islamist group to be a hardened criminal contracted and sponsored by the iranian
00:02:38.020guards and related Iranian intelligence networks to be active in targeting Canadians, targeting
00:02:44.320Americans, targeting Jewish citizens worldwide. So they're really sort of an official force that
00:02:51.000works very unofficially worldwide. And now it looks like our government, the Canadian government,
00:02:56.000has finally designated over the last couple of years IRGC as a terrorist organization.
00:03:02.740Meanwhile, CSBA is saying that they've found at least a dozen inadmissible people trying to come into the country.
00:03:09.980We're hearing reports that there are as many as a dozen or more, maybe 50, maybe 100 IRGC members investigated and identified here in Canada.
00:03:20.500How wide sweeping are these networks and are they mobilizing out of Canada?
00:03:25.540they're absolutely mobilizing out of canada and i'm uh i would say i have subject expertise on
00:03:33.420the iranian networks coming into it from intelligence and uh how iran along with
00:03:39.700countries as i've told you such as china a core mission a core part of their global missions
00:03:45.460is tapping into organized crime networks worldwide so that's my expertise on iran
00:03:50.120But I give credit to my former colleagues, Stuart Bell at Global, Negar Moshtehedi, who I worked with at Global, a great journalist now with Iran International.
00:04:02.220Both of them have documented how the Iranian guards or Iranian regime-linked families, I would say I would put Hezbollah-linked sort of operatives in the mix.
00:04:16.320There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Iranian either government, literally high-level government staff, or the family members of high-level Iranian guard or Iranian regime figures that are still living in Iran, while their family members will own mansions and high-end property from the north of Toronto to the north shore of Vancouver.
00:04:41.280Along with, say, a city like Los Angeles, Canada would be a global outlier for hosting not only the Iranian or Persian diaspora, the vast majority, very law-abiding, and many of them wanting to escape the brutal regime, but actually a high proportion of high-level Iranian guard family members and operatives living in Toronto and Vancouver.
00:05:06.400very dangerous situation. And my colleague, Stuart Bell, again, an international expert on
00:05:14.260these networks, he's done a number of stories about deportation proceedings that never seemed
00:05:20.640to really go the distance. He broke a story this week about an incredible story about the son or
00:05:29.200a family member of an Iranian former vice president living in Edmonton. CSIS, our intelligence agency,
00:05:37.200of course, had been following this man since about 2016 or 2015, doing all kinds of reports
00:05:44.820about how this man living in Edmonton, the son of a high-level Iranian official, was in fact
00:05:50.460working with Iranian intelligence to evade U.S. sanctions and what they call procurement. So
00:05:57.460building up military technology for Iran's operations, but using, of course, the Western
00:06:04.460world. And I won't go through the whole story, but it's clear that Iranian intelligence had him
00:06:11.280using Canada as a base, told him, do not go into the United States. You will not come out.
00:06:17.580So very clearly, he's set up in Canada, working against our allies and Canada's government,
00:06:26.000my colleague Stuart Bell reported gave him $2 million because he's acting like a legitimate
00:06:31.740person in Canada. We can't deport him. And yet CSIS, our intelligence agency, is reporting these
00:06:38.580red blaring alarms up through various arms of the government. And he's sitting here in Canada. So
00:06:43.940that's a case study of just, as I say, you know, when I see these stories as I write them, you can't
00:06:49.280make this stuff up in Hollywood. But they are, look, these networks from China to Iran, Mexican
00:06:55.880cartels i put in those same networks are exploiting canada's immigration and borders egregiously
00:07:02.520it's quite incredible to me that we're letting this happen as i pointed out when we started
00:07:06.520talking sam i think maybe we need to be a little concerned about the u.s opinion of this i mean
00:07:12.200they have very uh very pointedly stated that they are going deep into investigation into countries
00:07:18.600around the world that might be aiding and abetting uh you know the irgc and associated groups and
00:07:24.920And here we are housing some of the highest end members, most elite members of family
00:14:40.700I think about it literally probably every day and night in my work at the Bureau.
00:14:45.400So, look, the constant theme here, whether we're talking about a high-level Iranian guard intelligence asset using Edmonton and getting, I can't get over it, $2 million from the Canadian government, including Canadian armed forces, while Canada's intelligence agency, which is very respected, works hand-in-hand with the CIA, is reporting to the Trudeau government from 2015.
00:15:10.560This man is using Canada. And yet, you know, my colleague Stuart Bell reported CBSA can't deport him in 2025. The reason or excuse, and I would say reason is, they say we can't furnish the information we need to. What does that mean?
00:15:30.780It means Canadian intelligence knows very well we're being eaten alive by the most dangerous and worst threat networks in the world, from the CCP to Iranian guards and beyond.
00:15:42.780And yet the RCMP and CBSA, they can't use that intelligence.
00:17:07.160I think we're in the eighth or ninth inning of Canada's, let's call it, holding on to its sovereignty.
00:17:14.620The greatest national security crisis we face is how these transnational organized crime groups working together and directed, I say, by the CCP, Iran and others around the world are using Canada and using it easily.
00:17:30.500And I can point to any number of, you know, current or former US and Canadian officials, Taiwanese government officials that know very well what I'm talking about.
00:17:39.960So we either change our security posture to use, you know, the vernacular right now and start cracking down on these networks and cleaning up our country, or it's the U.S. government that is hammering us with tariffs and trade measures, which on the surface of them are about making America great again.
00:18:00.540But I know deep down part of it is forcing Canada to take security steps.
00:18:07.960The more that I think about this, and that's why I actually reached out to you, because I thought to myself, this is an underscore for what the problem is that really America has with us.
00:18:18.820$20 billion worth of trade, with all due respect to the people that have been affected by it, is fairly minuscule compared to what transacts in this country in a year.
00:18:31.380And also, it's not even a drop in the bucket from a U.S. perspective.
00:18:36.640I really think they're trying to get us in line and illustrate to us in many ways that we're not prepared to be a sovereign state.
00:18:45.180And that is a terrifying moment as well for, I think, for Canadians.
00:18:48.440But we're not seeing it through this lens enough that, you know, we are this perfect garden for terrorism, organized crime to flourish on a global level.
00:19:01.020You can fly anywhere you want internationally from Canada.
00:19:04.340You can get over the border easy enough, and we see that happening.
00:19:08.640So much in the way, and you must be watching this going, uh-huh,
00:19:12.020so much in the way of drugs being captured at the border right now
00:19:16.120can only make you think the amount that is not being captured is so enormous
00:19:20.520that that's why we're seeing this number.
00:19:31.240The drug, if you want to call it, the drugs and the money laundering are not only devastating to the average citizen in the United States and Canada, our death totals are off the charts.
00:19:44.920Our cities, as I've reported, coming up as a young reporter in Vancouver, in sort of the heroin and fentanyl death, one of the death capitals of the world.
00:20:01.020It's stunning. And here's the key. Over the past 10 years, this has spread into, you know,
00:20:06.660northern Ontario communities, small communities across the country, out to the, you know,
00:20:12.300Newfoundland, et cetera, are seeing that same sort of devastation in minuscule at this point.
00:20:18.000So you don't have to live in British Columbia anymore to see that the drugs and the money
00:20:23.460laundering are a major, major national security threat. Lots of people dying, lots of health
00:20:31.960resources being sucked out of our country, police resources. But the key is the U.S. government at a
00:20:38.100high sort of policy and intelligence level, along with other nations, believes that China and Iran
00:20:45.680are using those narco and money laundering networks for their operations, both to destabilize
00:20:52.540our populations in North America. So when people talk about, you know, military-aged young American
00:20:58.700males, you know, getting fentanyl addicted, certainly I've talked to a number of officials
00:21:03.620that believe that's what China wants to happen. Beyond that, you know, the drugs, the massive
00:21:10.140drug pools, few people would have any idea of how much in drug cash is sort of buried in
00:21:17.660hidey holes in our cities across the Western Hemisphere, Chinese organized crime has essentially
00:21:23.480taken over, tapping in and laundering that for all other sophisticated organized crime
00:21:30.320outfits. And again, the U.S. government at a high level believes that that money is both feeding
00:21:35.860into China, Iran operations against us on our soil, but feeding back into China's economy
00:21:43.880and how they launder that sort of money and trade their goods worldwide,
00:21:48.860which brings us back to probably the U.S. government concerns about tariffs against some countries that do a lot of trade with China.
00:21:57.580So I think what I want to add is that what I'm talking about, and I'm glad that people like you understand it, is a sort of shadow warfare.
00:22:06.020But I would hope the average Canadian could understand when you have the CIA director flying over to Russia and talking to their high-level intelligence, and what we've read from the reports is warning them, we know what you're planning to do, and it may be attacking a Baltic state.
00:22:25.380So, look, the U.S. government still wants to defend against that, despite what the elbows-up crowd in Canada believes.
00:22:37.900If Finland gets attacked, how does Canada's Arctic start to look?
00:22:41.980Do we want to be in sort of a position where the U.S. government doesn't trust us, which seems to be the case now?
00:22:48.580And now our Arctic is increasingly in threat, and we can't do anything about it.
00:22:52.560And we're putting more and more money into that Arctic threat to look like we're the boss of the Arctic. And at that very moment, after having spent all that money to be yanked out of there or repurposed because we don't suit the bill as protectorate, that would be a disappointing moment for Canadians and certainly devastating security wise, because at that moment, my opinion, maybe I'm wrong, the U.S. has to have a strong presence in Canada, making sure that that border is protected.
00:23:18.660I don't see any other way that it could work.
00:23:23.940You know, if we know from declassified intelligence or stories that have made it into the media or made it into the statements from President Trump that most people will roll their eyes at, we know that China and Russia are operating up in our Arctic areas.
00:23:41.020And this is why the U.S. government is starting to get very forceful and even a little bit politically aggressive with Denmark and Canada.
00:23:49.580But sort of, as you say, what's the alternative?
00:23:52.540What would most Canadians want if we start to see, you know, the enemies of NATO on the soil or in the water threateningly on our land and we can't do anything about it?
00:24:04.060I think that we'll probably be happy that the U.S. government wants to help us.
00:24:07.660Oh, yeah. First call to Uncle Sam. Absolutely.
00:24:09.700Absolutely. Sam, listen, I appreciate this. Before we go, I should say I'm a big fan of the Bureau, as I always mention. Congratulations on that. Anything you guys are following there that we can lead people to? I always, by the way, it's a daily stop for me. I recommend it.
00:24:25.740Thank you. Yeah, the Bureau.News, I started over three years ago. After almost 20 years in the big Canadian corporate media, I did it because I knew that I could report in detail deeply in the same way that my book, Willful Blindness, became sort of an international, you know, sold and read book.
00:24:47.780And so what I'm working on right now, there's a major sort of pattern emerging where, again, we're talking about the Chinese Communist Party and how it abuses its own citizens, so students that take student visas or travel visas to study in Canada and the United States.
00:25:07.880And now we're seeing cases pop up from a young woman that came to Toronto, is now sitting in jail in Brussels as an alleged member of a criminal organization and charged with allegedly doing espionage in NATO's high command.
00:25:25.840I reported a story. More details are coming out. Allegedly, she was skulking around the top U.S. official in the NATO headquarters in Brussels.
00:25:36.060The key thing here again, it's very rare that someone will be accused of espionage and membership in a criminal organization.
00:25:45.660So that to me is indicating the exact type of reporting that the Bureau has been doing that what we've been talking about today.
00:25:52.620China and criminal networks work hand in hand.
00:25:55.960Another story has broken where a University of Waterloo student, a young national from China, was arrested in Michigan for lying to U.S. Border Patrol.
00:26:09.240Why is he taking pictures of airplanes at Pearson Airport in Toronto or Chicago O'Hare and getting paid, he admitted, according to a document that I reported on, by a Chinese intelligence handler?
00:26:22.400There's another story at the University of Western where we have four young Mandarin speakers, three of them in the engineering department or just graduated, building a bomb, right?
00:26:33.640So these patterns are emerging where, very unfortunately, we have to take a very close look at international students, especially from China, that it looks to me are ramping up, you know, towards that potential conflict between China and the United States.
00:26:51.160If China wants to attack Taiwan, do we have cells ready to go on North American soil?
00:26:57.500So that's something that I'm looking at.